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Into the decadent world of Pasadena we go. . . . More and more I am drawn to that little triangle of treasures near Vroman's Bookstore: the Laemmle theaters, of course, where the audiences are either amazingly reverential or fully asleep, and the little courtyard across the street, where El Portal pours more margaritas than in all of Cabo, even on school nights. This is pretty much all I need in a city — a giant bookstore, a good set of theaters, a friendly watering hole where I can slowly suck all the vodka off my ice cubes. What Haydn did for violins, I am doing for the fine sport of recreational drinking. Mind you, I am doing all this in Pasadena, which may as well be...

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Into the decadent world of Pasadena we go. . . .
More and more I am drawn to that little triangle of treasures near Vroman's Bookstore: the Laemmle theaters, of course, where the audiences are either amazingly reverential or fully asleep, and the...

I've long considered Ellen Willis something of a hero. I hope I live longer than she did (Willis died in 2006, at 64), but otherwise, it's an exemplary life. She was the first pop music critic of the New Yorker, writing 56 pieces for the magazine from...

Set an out-of-towner loose to roam the Los Angeles area between West Hollywood and Koreatown and what can you expect? A food-truck overdose, perhaps. Or the bold suggestion that we extend our subway system westward. (Hey, we're working on it.) Or maybe...

Barry Feinstein, a photographer who gained renown as one of the premier chroniclers of the 1960s and '70s music scene, including shooting iconic album covers for Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and George Harrison, has died. He was 80.
Feinstein, a longtime...

When it comes to style on "American Idol," this season, all the action has been at the judges' desk.
FOR THE RECORD:
Steven Tyler: In the May 15 Image section, an article about Steven Tyler's fashion sense said the rocker wears beetle...

Howard Tate, 72, a soul singer who got a second chance at a career three decades after being derailed by disputes with industry executives, personal tragedy and drug addiction, died Dec. 2 in Burlington, N.J., said a spokesman for the Burlington County...

Pity the rubes. Those wayward tourists who dawdle in their cars and tour buses along Beachwood Drive, enraging the locals as they haltingly seek that perfect Hollywood sign photo op — they know not what they do. Maybe you're not from this neighborhood...

Jane Scott was a code breaker for the Navy during World War II. She owned a wind-up Victrola. And the first song she ever loved was from the big band era: a Jimmy Rushing hit for Count Basie called "Sent for You Yesterday (And Here You Come...

Soul songwriter Jerry Ragovoy wrote one of his more famous tunes – "Time Is On My Side," which turned into a massive hit for the Rolling Stones — under the pseudonym of Norman Meade.
He was saving his own name for the works he planned to...

British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse was a phenomenon: a Jewish girl from a London suburb with a retro beehive, a devil-may-care attitude and a voice that channeled Aretha Franklin and Ruth Brown. Music industry figures on both sides of the Atlantic...

First published on Oct. 30, 2011. Revised and expanded in early 2012. Set an out-of-towner loose to roam the Los Angeles area between West Hollywood and Koreatown, and what can you expect? A food-truck overdose, perhaps. Or the bold suggestion...

Katie Kay Mead was sitting behind the counter in her Los Feliz boutique, GatherLA, in late summer when two European tourists came in, asking for directions to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The tourists gazed curiously at a taxidermied fawn displayed among...

Rock 'n' roll remains one of those tent-pole theme nights on “American Idol,” one that that aging competition would never get rid of -- and for good reason. Birthed out of a combination of blues, country, jazz, soul, folk and ...

Based on the "Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" permanent exhibit at the museum, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's first app -- which debuted Wednesday -- offers a virtual exploration of the more than 600 tracks selected by Rock hall curatorial staff along with

Before Linda McCartney ever laid eyes on her husband-to-be at the launch party for the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in 1967, she was already a reputable rock 'n' roll photographer capturing candid behind-the-scenes images of late '60s ...